The Ongoing Disappointment in Vampire Fiction

The Vampire wave is on! Every bookstore you enter, there are shelves full of vampire fiction. Whether it’s a lonely, rogue vampire or a school for vampires or vampire hunters, you name it, they’ve got them. Vampire stories are not like science fiction stories anymore; instead they have been turned into chick-lit for more dumb audiences.

Vampires used to be an exclusive and rare species in the fantasy genre, but now they are depicted as a full race living normally among humans in books. Vampires don’t hide anymore; they go to ‘vampire school’ just like in The Vampire Academy series, or live among humans as equals like in theSookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Series. Whatever it maybe, it has definitely ruined the reputation set by the classical vampires like Dracula by Bram Stoker and Anne Rice’s character Lestat in The Vampire Lestat.

(Image from charlaineharris.com)

For example, in Twilight, it is safe to say that the author, Stephenie Meyer has literally ruined the nature of vampires. Ignoring standard vampire nature like burning in the sun or sleeping in coffins, the author gives new gifts to her vampires like telepathy, clairvoyance, healing, the ability to glow etc. As if super-speed and super-strength aren’t hard enough to handle, some extra skills are indeed needed to tackle the battles of love.

Yes, in all of today’s vampire fiction, the fantasies of a vampire love story have been made up for. These books have taken outrageous liberties to make them feasible bestsellers right next to Sweet Valley High. Love triangles and quadrangles have been set around humans, vampires, werewolves and God knows what other fantastical creatures.

The real question is what is it about this fiction that draws people by the millions? Maybe it is the traditional tale of a lonesome and troubled young woman loved by a passionate young man. It is a tale as old as time but in today’s world, dominated by gender politics, it is perhaps time for a new kind of heroine, one who is a role model rather than a victim.

In the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, we found such a hero in Katniss Everdeen but then again, she, too is plagued by the “ultimate” choice – which boy to choose? The more things seem to have changed, the more we realize that they haven’t because classics like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or supernatural hits like Twilight essentially boil down to the same thing – finding the perfect man.

(Image from vampirediaries.alloyentertainment.com / and www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilightseries.html)